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Stop tinkering, start thinking
The moments, events and issues that made or unmade 2005
By Louis Benedict and Ameen Izzadeen

A man clings to the top of a vehicle before being rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard from the flooded streets of New Orleans, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina

In a shatteringly silent contrast to the turn of the millennium, 2005 dawned with little by way of fireworks, festivity, fanfare, jubilation or jingle bells because it came so soon after one of the worst natural catastrophes in human history - the tsunami of December 26, which will be remembered for ages as T-Day.

The year began with a terrifying and horrifying disaster not only unexpected but also unthinkable or unimaginable as roaring sea waves soaring above the height of coconut trees carried away more than 200,000 people to a watery grave while leaving millions of others displaced and dispossessed with little or nothing even today.

The year which began with a cataclysmic disaster went on to produce several more disasters including the hurricane of hurricanes in the Gulf Coast of the United States, the Himalayan earthquake on the Pakistan-India border and a series of socio-economic and political disasters.

As we move into 2006 today after drowning ourselves back into the bad old days or ways of vulgar extravagance and luxury bust-ups in the face of stark poverty for billions of people, hope appears to be one of the last remaining virtues available to those who seek peace and justice in a spirit of goodwill.
Despite the lessons of the tsunami and other social hellholes or political holocausts, a Third World perspective of today's scenario shows a world where the richest ten percent of the population are known to control or manipulate some 40 percent of the world's wealth and resources while the poorest ten percent have access to only one percent of the resources.

More than three decades after the Reagans and the Thatchers re-imposed their neo-colonialism, largely through the globalised capitalist market economy, most analysts in the Third World see a drama where an obese and greedy rich world which has far too much is trying to exploit or plunder the remaining resources of the Third World through subtle and sophisticated methods which many do not even see. In the days of military colonialism when the great powers came with their armies and their guns cloaked in their religion, the people of the Third World were at least aware that they were being stripped not only of their freedom and dignity but also of their wealth and resources. History is being repeated today but now it is being done through the creation of hidden structures of injustice and imbalance, orchestrated by institutions like the World Trade Organisation, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Most Third World analysts such as Arundhati Roy and Waldon Ballow see the world today as being controlled or manipulated largely by the G-8 richest nations led by the United States which, in turn, are apparently in the clutches of the 24 huge transnational corporations, including the Bank of America, American Express, global food chains like McDonalds and huge pharmaceutical companies.

Led by the George Bush administration and a hydra-headed rightwing monster, they are preaching or propagating their neo-colonial concepts for exploitation and plunder under the cover of labels like American democracy or even corporate or business Christianity with its disco-like trends and prosperity Gospels running totally counter to the Gospel of the poor Jesus of Nazareth. Overall, social analysts see an attempt to hijack the Third World and, in the process, the rich world and the transnational corporations led by President Bush also appear to have hijacked Christianity.

Tragically, billions of people in the Third World have not been made aware of what really is going on, largely because of the powerful propaganda being carried out by world TV channels and other media organisations which are mostly controlled by the huge transnational corporations.

Furthermore, the Third World's rich and ruling elite - following the general trend of self-interest or individualism and fattening themselves on the benefits of the market economy - also work hard to prop up the system of injustice and imbalance where the rich are becoming richer and the poor poorer.
The globalised capitalist market economy basically works on the concept that if the rich world is made richer it could help the poor world. But over the past three decades, this so-called trickle-down concept propagated by the WTO, WB and IMF, has clearly not worked because some two billion people - one third of the world's population - are known to be living below the poverty line.

Though the popular globalised capitalist market economic system is widening the gap between the rich and the poor to monstrous and devastating proportions, this modern version of the Biblical Babylon has not been challenged even by the Vatican, while many fundamentalist Christian groups are seen to be openly, though unknowingly, supporting and feeding this beast.
Strangely and surprisingly, the main opposition to the Bush-Blair doctrine or the new religion of the market appears to be coming from the likes of Osama bin Laden, though some of their methods of violence and vengeance are rejected by and repulsive to even most Muslims who are committed more to the merciful and compassionate justice of Islam.

Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, backed by the people of Brazil, Cuba, Bolivia, Iran, China, India and a few other countries, is also rising up in resistance to the Bush-Blair market religion and the plunder or double standards of the G-8 and the transnational corporations.

For instance, the United States is known to be subsidizing every bull or cow in that country to the tune of about Rs. 250 a day, but when a Third World country like Sri Lanka wants to provide a fertilizer subsidy of about Rs. 500 a month to its farmers, the rich world and the donors oppose it, threatening to cut off the aid if the welfare measures are not curbed. Britain, this year, advised its farmers to totally stop production in a bid to stabilize world wheat prices. Billions of pounds were provided as a subsidy or compensation to the non-producing farmers, while the same policy makers backed by the aid agencies and the WTO punished Third World countries which provide a fraction of that to their suffering and poverty-trapped people.

In this perspective of a Thunderball or a Babylon-like beast trying to control and recreate the world and force the people to worship it if they want to survive, we could analyse the decisive or defining moments and events that made or unmade 2005.

As seen at the beginning of this reflection, the year started with the world's attention on relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction for millions of tsunami victims in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, India, the Maldives and other Indian Ocean countries. Initially, the people gave selflessly, sincerely and sacrificially. For instance, in Sri Lanka, by the evening of December 26, just hours after the news of the horror spread, some one million packets of food were sent by the people in helicopters, lorries and other vehicles to the victims of the tsunami. If the life-sustaining sea turned into a killer and carried away 200,000 people within hours, then the catastrophe was turned into a blessing through the unprecedented burst of generosity and goodwill, with the people of the world rising beyond religious, racial, social, political or other barriers.

The United Nations took the lead in generating and coordinating worldwide rescue and relief operations, with former US President Bill Clinton as a special envoy rising above and beyond the image of the so many others who could be branded as ugly Americans.

Tragically, the relief and rebuilding operations were damned. In some countries such as Sri Lanka, personal interests and political agendas have put all at sea and prevented huge amounts of aid from flowing to the victims.
With the tsunami taking centrestage, international attention was temporarily diverted from the main battle zone of modern Babylon drama - the crisis in Iraq. We wish to focus here on some important and vital areas that transnational-corporations-controlled world media groups do not normally spotlight. Respected world journals have revealed that the death toll among innocent civilians in Iraq since the US launched its war in March 2003 might be more than 100,000. This comes after US led sanctions since 1991 reportedly led to the deaths of more than half a million children, largely due to lack of nutrition, medicine and other sanction-related deficiencies - a case of modern Herods of the new Babylon slaughtering 500,000 children.

Despite the claims of success in the three elections held in Iraq this year, most analysts believe that the Bush administration has dragged and plunged itself into a pigsty or mud-hole bigger than what the Johnsons and the Nixons dug for themselves in Vietnam. The death toll among US troops since the March 2003 invasion has risen to about 2,100 and though the Bush administration is reportedly jubilant over the turnout at the recent parliamentary elections and the victory of the Shiite religious coalition, American strategists would also be aware that this coalition is backed by Iran.

The Iraq operations, including the torture of suspects - which provoked Amnesty International to accuse the US of running a virtual gulag at the Guantanamo Bay base -were generally carried out under the all-purpose and popular label of a war on terrorism. Yet, many Third World analysts challenge this on the basis that the various groups and forces in Iraq are responding through an insurgency to the illegal occupation of their country by the Bush-led coalition of the bullied and the bought. By the year's end, the popularity rating of President Bush has plunged into a pigsty though he appears to be showing little sign of being a repentant prodigal with his policies and speeches smacking of self-righteousness and sanctimonious humbug.

Across the Atlantic, President Bush's poodle or partner, Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair, was re-elected to an unprecedented third term, though with a sharply reduced majority and a severe rebellion within his party. Britain was also shocked and rocked into its own September 11, with the London bombings of July 7, leaving hundreds dead or injured and a nation stricken by fear and confusion.

Besides the tsunami catastrophe and the potential Armageddon in Iraq, the other headline-hitting event of 2005 was the Himalayan earthquake of October 8 on the Pakistan-India border. Some 80,000 people perished and more are dying daily with harsh sub-zero winter temperatures coming in as tens of thousands of people are still without proper shelter or basic facilities. Amidst fears that thousands may freeze to death, the only consolation is that most of the victims are used to long, freezing winters and might pull through despite the starvation and the cold.

In positive terms, this worst-ever earthquake in the subcontinent opened the gates and the borders for peace talks between India and Pakistan, with both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pervez Musharraf appearing to be keen to turn the calamity into a blessing. Their task, however, would be as Himalayan as the region, with various forces having their own interest or agendas and pulling in different directions. But, as Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse said in his Christmas day message, the Indian and Pakistani leaders also seem to be keen on being counted among the peacemakers in a spirit of forgiveness, accommodation and a win-win approach.

Global warming and the rising of sea levels-caused mainly by carbon dioxide pollution with the US being the biggest polluter led to a storm of hurricanes with the hurricane of hurricanes named Katrina leaving New Orleans and neighbouring areas in September more devastated than after the civil war. Despite the availability of vast resources and ultramodern technology, the Bush administration's relief operations also ran into a political storm, with the chief of the relief agency being fired for inefficiency.

The hell and fury of Katrina, followed by a less devastating though more feared Rita, left the US wondering what would hit it from where, largely because its leaders and strategists had sown with the wind and the country was now reaping the whirlwind.

While hundreds of millions of people were being attracted or forced into the worship of the new market religion with money on the altar, the world also saw the end of an era with the death of Pope John Paul II after the ailing and aging pontiff bravely fought killer ailments like Parkinson's. The Polish pontiff was loved and respected by millions of people mainly because he took the papacy out of the thrones of the Vatican and to the doorsteps or cattle sheds of the people during his 27 years as the head of the Catholic Church.
While much has been said to the credit of Pope John Paul II and he has been put on the fast track to sainthood, some Catholic theologians and thinkers believe that during his reign, the Church turned back somewhat from the structural and cultural reforms initiated by Pope John XXIII through the Second Vatican Council. The radical thinkers and theologians of the Social Gospel were far from happy when the Conclave of Cardinals, with virtual lightning speed, on April 19 elected the conservative and orthodox German Cardinal George Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI.

Although Iraq has emerged as the world's most dangerous region, the scriptural centrestage of West Asia - Israel and Palestine - remained much in the spotlight, through ups and downs, cliffs and valleys. It witnessed what was unthinkable: the transformation of the hawkish former General Ariel Sharon. Claiming that his Likud party is too much on a hardline or a war path, Mr. Sharon has formed his own moderate party known as Kadima (meaning forward) and despite suffering a mild stroke recently, he is running hard and strong for the general elections in March. His decision to go ahead with the Gaza withdrawal despite strong opposition from Jewish hardliners is seen as a major step towards eventually settling the West Asia crisis through the setting up of an independent Palestinian state. But by year's end, Gaza still remains a troubled zone with Israeli missiles pulverizing civilian targets.

Across the border, Lebanon went through a tumultuous year with the killing of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri. A virtual people's revolution led to the pullout of Syrian troops and fresh parliamentary elections. Though bomb attacks and assassinations were continuing, Lebanon was fairly stable as the year ended.
The hidden structural injustices or imbalances which make the rich world richer or obese and the poor poorer, need to be identified and addressed if the world is to be pulled back from the brink of an Armageddon. For this to happen, the people of the Third World need to awaken from their long dark midnight and be aware and alert to what is really happening. They need to think and analyse the story behind the story and the hidden agendas behind the rich world's acts of charity or the scenarios of the crumbs falling from the table in the well-known parable of the poor man Lazarus and the rich man Dives which in Sinhala would mean "Dhanapathiya".

If the people of the Third World do not think and dig deep into events and issues, we will only be tackling the symptoms or scratching the surface, while the neo-imperialist forces take over the world.

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